Publiqly’s Practical Guide to Press Release Distribution

So you finished your press release and everyone has signed off on it. Now what?

Here are four practical and low-cost methods to get your news in front of your target audience. Use them in tandem and you’ll be more successful.

1. Use Your ‘Own Media’

Post your press release in the news section of your website.

Include it in your customer newsletter. It will give your sales people interesting content to share with prospects and satisfied clients might even share the news via their own social media feeds. In the end, they are your ambassadors.

2. Share it on Social Media

Share your news via social media channels, such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus or Facebook. Don’t forget to link to your website to attract more visitors.

Reach out to influencers. Find out on Twitter who the most important influencers are in your niche. Start following them, maybe they will follow you back and retweet your news.

3. Reach Out to Relevant Media

There are many media platforms to target. It all depends on who your target audience is, as you determined in Step 2 of your Workflow. If you’re trying to reach influencers in your specific niche, you should focus on trade media. If you’re trying to reach local customers, go for local and regional media. Here are a few tips to find and reach out to relevant media:

Go to Google News [or select “News” below Google’s main search bar] to identify relevant media. Search for topics related to your company or news about your competitors. Some of these articles will be written by journalists who could very well also be interested in your company. Use Twitter, Google and their publication’s website to start reading up on them. What do they typically write about? Would they be interested in your news?

Find their contact details. Always aim for their personal email address, which you can usually find on the publication’s website. Use Google to go to the appropriate webpage [“contact reporters” or “contact editors” + publication name] or do a more generic search [“name of the journalist” followed by the domain name of the publication].

Reach out to the journalist by email. Introduce your company in a concise and compelling way (don’t use more than a few sentences) and ask them if they would like to learn more. If they are interested, add their contact details to a spreadsheet to start building a press release distribution list.

If you can’t find their personal details of if they don’t want to be on your list, use the general newsroom mailbox instead [Google: “submit” + “press release” + publication name]. If you share the release with multiple receivers, make sure to use the BCC field in your email.

If there is a specific target publication you would like to reach, check for their editorial calendar [Google: “editorial calendar” + publication name] and see if/when your news update fits in with their planning.

4. Go for the Low-Hanging Fruit

Use a free press release distribution site. Check the article here for an overview. Of course, you can also use paid services such as PR Newswire or Business Wire, but we promised to offer low-cost solutions.

Check if you can find special “posting websites” where you can post your press release for free. This will help your search rankings on Google. Do a Google search for “submit news” or “submit content” and the kind of publications you are trying to reach, e.g. “tech media”. You’ll get a long list of websites to submit press releases.

Some trade media websites have a special product page where you can submit product news. Make sure you have an attractive image/logo that illustrates the content.

To get the most out of Publiqly, be sure to also take a look at our full Resource Library here for more tips and tricks.